The Power of Love

Mom’s love permanently changes children…and grandchildren, according to research by Moshe Szyf at McGill University: “rats that are good moms can permanently change the way the genes of their offspring act, causing the pups to be calmer throughout adulthood”
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“the actual sequential structure of our DNA, can pretty much shrug off the influence of any external environmental factors, short of massive radiation. However, the expression of individual genes within that sequence can be permanently altered by such seemingly innocuous influences as diet or how others treat us.
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“rats that had received healthy doses of maternal licking as pups grew up to be calmer and more socially adept than their brethren who had mothers that weren’t nearly as attentive.
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“That a mother’s nurturing benefits her offspring wasn’t news. But the team’s explanation of how it came about was so novel, it verged on the heretical. Their findings proved that maternal grooming brought about a chemical change in the mechanism in the brain that regulates stress hormones-a change that persisted into adulthood. …the epigenetic changes that bad or good mothering causes in rats not only last a lifetime but can be inherited.”